Computer technology is continually advancing, resulting in computers which become more powerful, less expensive, and/or smaller than their predecessors. As a result, computers are becomingly increasingly commonplace in many different environments, such as homes, offices, businesses, vehicles, educational facilities, and so forth.
However, problems can be encountered in integrating computers into different environments. For example, it can be difficult to hear feedback from the computer in some situations because the playback volume level is too low or the feedback is being masked (e.g., by music being played back). A similar problem is that some components (e.g., a speech recognizer or cellular phone) can experience difficulty in hearing the user because the sound level from other sources (e.g., music being played back) is too high. These problems can frustrate users and decrease the user-friendliness of such computers.
The dynamic volume control described herein helps at least partially solve these problems.